Step Eight!

Get Up!

Find a good spot, or, as in this case, go to the spot that you’ve planned the stencil for.

This is a site-specific stencil. This wooden construction wall juts out right into the middle of a downtown Toronto street. I wanted to put this horse and buggy here, like it’s coming down off the wall, from out of the past, right in the middle of the street.

Maybe this will remind people of Toronto’s history. We tend to feel a little “historyless” in Canada.
There was a time, not to long ago really, that carriages were commonplace on Toronto’s streets.

I like making site-specific stencils. I find a good spot, and then I come up with an idea for the space. I think going about it this way creates a strong interaction between the space and the piece, which creates a stronger work.

Sometimes making an image first and then putting it up wherever is convenient can create a “cut and paste” feel, which can be cool, the sense of being out of place or not belonging can really work for street art, but it can also create the feeling of plop art, or carelessness, I think.

I sometimes go and actually measure the space first, but I didn’t this time, and I think you can tell because it’s a little smaller than it needs to be.

That’s another thing, you’ll find that everything shrinks once on the street.

If you make a site specific work, be sure to get it up quickly! The situation at the site can change on you before you get your stencil up. This has happened to me several times, and it’s frustrating every time. You’re then forced to find a replacement site that usually doesn’t work as well. I still have a 4-month old stencil cut and ready to go at home (I cut it before I started blade diary) but I haven’t found a suitable replacement site.

To get the poster up I spread it out on the ground, pour some paste onto the back, spread the paste around, and then position the poster on the wall and smooth it out.

I’ve been told that this is strange- and I think I’m pretty alone in doing it this way. It would seem that most street artists spread paste onto the wall first and then put the poster up ontop.

I like doing it my way because the paste is spread quickly and evenly all over your poster, right up to the edges. When you put your paste up on the wall first, you’re guessing at the shape and size of your poster. You either miss areas, which makes your poster easier to tear down, or you spread paste all over the place, covering an area larger than your poster, which wastes time and is inefficient.

For a better view of how I paste watch this video:

Or if you’re interested in how to spray a stencil on the street, check out this video:

That’s it!

Good luck!